


A Stocking was Hung by the Chimney with Care

by Onlymystory



Series: 25 Days of Teen Wolf Christmas [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Mama Stilinski Feels, off screen character death, read the notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-12
Updated: 2012-12-12
Packaged: 2017-11-20 22:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/590270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onlymystory/pseuds/Onlymystory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Stilinski house has two Christmas traditions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Stocking was Hung by the Chimney with Care

**Author's Note:**

> Possible triggers on this one, see end notes.

There are two Christmas traditions in the Stilinski household. One is the stockings.

Stiles has always hung just one stocking on the mantle.

The one for his mom.

It started the first Christmas after she died. He’d tried putting out Christmas decorations, since it was her favorite holiday.

Stiles only got as far as her stocking. He hung it on the mantle and started crying.

There wasn’t much to the stocking. Red, with a fluffy white top border and an angel embroidered on the front because his mother never apologized for being a teensy bit cliché and loving angels at Christmas.

Stiles meant to take it down before his dad got home. If he couldn’t handle the memories, better to not let his dad get upset too. But Stiles had fallen asleep in the easy chair, arms wrapped around a stuffed snowman, fingers outstretched and just barely touching the edges of the stocking.

When he woke up, his dad was handing him a cup of hot chocolate, his eyes a little bit sad.

Stiles had apologized, saying he’d take it down, that he wasn’t thinking, he just wanted something to stay the same. It was a stupid idea.

John stopped him, put the stocking back on the nail. Said that things were going to change but that maybe they could just hang her stocking now, as a way for her to still be a part of their Christmas.

Stiles always liked that idea.

So whenever friends or family or neighbors would stop by the house during the holidays over the following years, and ask about the single stocking, he’d smile softly and explain that it was for his mother.

That this way, even though she couldn’t be with him physically, he could still share Christmas with her from far away.

Since he was eleven, the stocking has hung alone, a stark contrast to the lack of Christmas decorations in the rest of the house.

This year, Stiles goes downstairs to hang the stocking again. His dad never tries to find the stocking, but he always looks for it on the mantel that first day. Stiles knows it’s become important to both of them.

Ten years have gone by and Stiles again goes down to the basement to dig out his mother’s stocking. He can hear his dad making hot chocolate in the kitchen. This is their ritual.

Stiles walks into the living room and hangs the stocking. He sits on the couch, waits for John to come sit next to him.

John hands him the mug of cocoa. There’s whiskey in it this year.

Stiles drinks it without question. He’s known that this is how John drinks his every year. Losing the one you love is even harder than losing family.

They stare at the fireplace for a long time, both lost in their own thoughts.

There are two stockings on the mantel this year.

One is old and worn, the threads of an embroidered angel’s wing starting to fade.

The other is new. Embroidered with a simple triskelion.

Stiles sits and holds his dad’s hand tightly. If his hot chocolate ends up tasting a little salty, well that’s the other Christmas tradition they’ve never been able to break. 

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so Derek's dead in this one. I was having a rough day and dealing with shit and this was my version of therapeutic when I wrote it. The death has already happened but it's a pretty gut you in the feels fic so please be aware of that.


End file.
